Annual Speak Up, Speak Out impact report highlighted by Office of School Safety

WISCONSIN – Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Office of School Safety (OSS) released the 2024-2025 annual impact report for Speak Up, Speak Out (SUSO), a free statewide threat reporting tipline available to all Wisconsin schools.

A release from the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) said SUSO also serves as the hub that connects all OSS initiatives and is the entry point where schools can access comprehensive services offered by OSS and local, state and national partners.

“Speak Up, Speak Out has been a resource for students and others to report concerns about safety and student well-being,” said Attorney General Josh Kaul. “As the numbers show, this resource is being used a lot, helping to make schools safer.”

The DOJ said SUSO received 6,946 tips during the 2024-2025 school year, a more than 30% increase from the previous school year.

“Since the inception of SUSO in 2020, bullying has consistently been the number one tip,” the DOJ stated. “It is also common nationally for bullying to be the most reported tip. Awareness of these incidents helps schools intervene early, before grievances and upsets can lead children down a pathway to violence.”

SUSO had received more than 17,000 tips as of Aug. 31, according to the DOJ.

“Numerous students across Wisconsin have contacted SUSO each year since its inception, reporting concerns, resulting in early intervention opportunities and safer school communities,” the DOJ said. “The significant increase in tips and the rich dialogue that many students have with SUSO staff indicate that SUSO has earned a reputation among youth as a safe, accessible and credible place to report concerns.”

The DOJ said the 2024-2025 annual report “reflects OSS’s comprehensive approach to prioritizing and preventing violence in our schools and, when crisis events do arise, responding appropriately to mitigate trauma and get students back to learning more quickly.”

OSS has resources available to assist Wisconsin schools during all phases of crisis response and recovery. OSS assisted several schools with crisis response and recovery during the 2024-2025 school year, the DOJ noted.

Along with crisis response and recovery, OSS also offers a variety of free trainings concerning violence prevention, protection, mitigation, crisis response and recovery. These include trainings for Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM), Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and the Standard Reunification Method (SRM).

During the 2024-2025 school year, OSS provided SRP and SRM training to 1,170 people from 123 school districts and private schools, 41 law enforcement agencies and 16 other agencies across 44 Wisconsin counties, according to the DOJ.

To report school safety concerns or to access OSS’s comprehensive school safety resources, please contact SUSO at 1-800-MYSUSO-1 or visit www.speakup.widoj.gov.